Smoking - Good for Migraine People?

Tobacco can trigger headaches, specifically migraines, an article published in sciencedaily stipulates.

"The results show that 16% of students fulfilled migraine criteria, while 20% smoked. The percentage of smokers was higher (29%) in those who were also migraine sufferers and migraine frequency in those students who were migraine sufferers and smokers was clearly higher than in those who were non-smokers and migraine sufferers.

According to researchers, "smoking is a precipitating factor of this type of headache, as the prevalence of active smokers is one third higher in migraine sufferers and there is a direct relationship between the number of cigarettes consumed and the frequency of migraine attacks"."

Here's a thought, however - what if the it's the other way around? What if migraine people smoke more because they have migraines?

Tobacco is a mild depressant. As such, migraine patients who smoke do it (subconsciously) to slow their hyperactive neurons. More to the point - to numb the senses, especially the sense of smell.

Therefore, the more often people have migraines, the more often they'd smoke.

As you can see, my gentle readers, the results could be interpreted at least two ways. One would imply that smocking is bad for migraines; the other could be stretched so far as to hint it would actually be beneficial.

And so, the thought for today if - Correlation does not imply Causation. Research scientists should really remember this one.

:P